Maury Levine has always loved shopping malls. He even spent so much time in Birmingham malls as a kid he wanted to manage one when he grew up.

In fact, he took his love of malls one step further in his first novel. “Shopping Bagged” is a humorous mystery that follows a shopping center developer who buries a body under the food court fountain at one of his developments. Levine will celebrate the release on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at a book signing at Homewood’s Little Professor Book Center.

“It’s not just a random murder,” he said about the plot. “There’s a reason the murder takes place. There’s something that he needs to get accomplished.”

“Shopping Bagged” revolves around the mystery surrounding the murder, but Levine wanted to keep the material light in the path of authors like David Berry, Carl Hiaasen and, his personal favorite, Donald Westlake.

“It’s about as lighthearted as you can get with a body buried under a mall,” Levine said.

He was inspired to pen his first book after the unexpected death of Westlake.

“I had an idea of what if there was a body buried in a mall, so when Donald Westlake died I thought ‘You know what? I’m just going write this book. I’m just going to do it,’” he said.

The writing process was “fantastically fun” for him, he said. Levine wrote in between his day job as a Quality Assurance manager and his night job as a drummer for musical productions at Red Mountain Theater Company where he’s performed in almost 200 shows. The book was finished in a year. He said writing was a second creative outlet for him outside of music.

“I’d come home and write what I could until I got tired and it was just fantastic to do that,” he said.

The book was also inspired by his love for one mall of Birmingham’s past in particular where his father owned an office.

Once the book was finished, he began shopping the book to publishers. Black Rose Writing picked up the book and released it on Nov. 28. It is now available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million online stores. Copies can also be purchased at Little Professor.

Levine said he already has an idea for this second book, one he hopes to start on soon.

“I’ve got a little notebook where I’ve got the ideas written down, I’ve got names and just general points. I’m really close to getting started." he said.